Ek T Tan1, Seung-Kyun Lee1, Paul Weavers2, Matthew Middione3, Matt A Bernstein2, John Huston2, and Thomas KF Foo1
1GE Global Research, Niskayuna, NY, United States, 2Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, United States, 3GE Healthcare, Menlo Park, CA, United States
It is challenging to
increase spatial resolution (≤1.5 mm) in whole-brain, single-shot
echo-planar-imaging (ss-EPI) on conventional whole-body systems due to EPI
distortion and limited SNR. A compact head 3T system with an asymmetric head
gradient coil capable of high gradient amplitude and 3.5 times the slew rate of
whole-body systems can enable ss-EPI acquisition with high spatial resolution
and reduced spatial distortion, simultaneously. This work compares spin-echo
and gradient-recalled-echo ss-EPI between the compact and whole-body systems,
showing substantially reduced distortion and signal dropout, and shorter
echo-times. Results with the high performance gradient were also demonstrated
in multi-band-accelerated, high b-value diffusion-imaging.
